My Birthday Cake

I was looking through my Cake Mix Doctor book trying to find a desirable cake for Kevin to make with the girls.  Well, I ended up with a somewhat complicated, expensive cake.  Therefore, Kevin allowed me to help make it.  It was a chocolate toffee cheesecake.  You are to use a cake mix for the crust, and so to make it gluten free I used a double batch of a mix I had tried before.  Oh was it good!  It also called for chocolate sweetened condensed milk, which I couldn't find, so here is a recipe.

Here is the clean-up crew:

And the watchers...we made the cake right before bedtime, so they had to go to bed while it was still in the oven.  We promised them a tester bite in the morning.

They're in bed and now I'm watching...

Yeah!!  She was glad that we didn't have to wait all week for my birthday to come so we could taste that cake.  We ended up eating it all week long, just little bits at a time.  In fact, there is still one more small piece for each of us in the fridge for later this week!

Cold or Raw Pack Pears

Last weekend at Nana's house, she helped me with some cold packing.  It was very simple.  Since she had a dishwasher we sterilized and kept warm the jars in there.  I cut and cored but did not peel the pears.  Then, set some 100% apple juice on the stove to boil.  Once the lids were sterilized and the canning water was hot, we packed the pears in the jars, filled with boiling apple juice, got some bubbles out, covered and placed in the canning water.  The tip I learned was that you wait until the canner is blowing out steam before you set your timer for the processing time (25 minutes for pints and 30 minutes for quarts).  Ta-da!  Last night I bought another lug, so I am hoping the end of the week will be a good time to can those too, and make some more pear jam!

Sewing to Nursery

The start...  Ever since we moved into this house, this little room has been "mine".  I have used it for my sewing room/storage room, along with the adjoining closet.  This spring, I had to start giving it up.  Mentally first, but then physically.  Thankfully, Kevin doesn't mind that the sewing table fits in our room.  Eventually, I suppose it will in habit a corner of our basement, but for now, it uses a small portion of a walkway to my dresser in the master bedroom. 

After moving everything out of the room, the first thing to change was the walls.  And while we were at it we painted the ceiling!  This is actually the first room that I had any part of painting.  :)  Friends and family helped on move-in weekend painting the 2 main bedrooms, my mom painted my dining room and Kevin painted the bathroom (I've only painted closets so far). 

My mom visited for a week, to take care of the girls and then to help me with the painting.  Here she is rolling on the yellow. 

 

Prior to the room painting weekend, Kevin and I had found a dresser on Craig's List.  It was expensive, but just what we needed.  We headed over to take a look at it and decided against it because of drawer cracks, etc.  On our way home we saw rummage sale sign.  I asked Kevin to stop and we bought this changing table for $3!!  I painted it with closet paint (tan to white), and we found bins to use for drawers.  Kevin also took a part a wobbly table to put a shelf piece on the bottom level. What a handy man he is!

The final product (mostly) with the sunshine coming in!  Final home visit today!  I'm not sure how long after that.  Kevin was holding our 6 month old niece this weekend and said, "We need one of these."  :)  Maybe soon!  I had a quilt to put up on the walls, but the color didn't quite match (to my liking) so, I will have to rethink my wall decor.

Overnight Apple Butter - Crock Pot

1. (Evening) Cut and core apples (no need to peel), enough to fill your crock pot. 
2. Sprinkle over:  3 cups sugar, 2 tablespoons cinnamon (or more!), 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon salt.
3. Place crock pot on high for 1 hour.
4. Mix and turn crock pot to low overnight (9+ hours).
5. (Next morning) Mix and uncover for one more hour, stirring occasionally to smooth...you can always blend this to make it really smooth.
6. Can or cool and freeze/refrigerate.

The recipe that I started with called for 5 1/2 pounds of apples...I didn't measure it out, but I have a large crock pot...maybe a 6 quart capacity. 

What about pear butter?  Do you think that would be good?  Would you tweak the recipe at all?  Please comment!!!  :) 

Unsweetened Apple or Pear Sauce - Crock Pot

1. Fill your crock pot with cut and cored apples (no need to peel).
   
2. Place on high for about 4 hours...check at that time to see if the fruit is soft enough to smash.
3. Cool or can.

 

Pears after a few hours in the crockpot.

Omaha 6th Anniversary Outing

Restaurant Review:  Stokes in Omaha.  YUMM!  I am sorry that I did not take pictures of the full plates, but this will have to do as I cannot go back for seconds for some time.  (Above: Sharon's (Almost) World Famous Enchiladas...made with corn tortillas, Below: Fish Tacos made with fresh salmon)  Excellent and flavorful, and fabulous especially spicy are the words that came to mind when eating these!  I contacted the Stokes people to try to get a "button" to add here, but we'll see how that goes...a link might have to be sufficient.

We wandered through The Old Market, going into a few shops but then migrating to the parks and pathways. 

The Visit Omaha site features a picture of a really neat looking bridge.  I asked a friend who lives there where it was.  She informed me that it was a walking bridge and that made it to the "must experience" list.  There were a few other things such as carriage rides, that sounded fun, but weren't priority.  Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge

The above picture was taken for the girls.  In the Bernstein Bear's The A Book, there is an Avenue A that all the character's cross to follow the ants.  So, when we saw that Council Bluffs, IA had an Avenue A, we had to slow for a picture.  The guy coming out of that apartment looked at us kind of funny, but we didn't stay long so...  he'll just have to wonder!

These last two pictures were also taken with our girls in mind.  One was in an archway in the children's garden at Lauritzen Gardens.  We were sheltered by gourd plants.  The day we toured was the first day of school in Omaha and a few different classes were wondering around in groups with "tour guides".  We were able to ask a few questions of one of the guides as she was in between groups.  The picture below is a Pitcher plant.  It is carnivorous.  We had read about it in a book and thought it neat to have been able to see it in person!

Multi Grain Gluten Free Cereal

I got a little tired of eating plain Chex every morning for breakfast.  So, I am mixing it up a bit with Corn Chex, Rice Krispies Gluten Free with Brown Rice, and Arrowhead Mills Puffed Millet.  I had originally tried the puffed millet alone, but it was soft, not crispy like Rice Krispies.  So it seemed (although I have never tried it) to be like eating those little styrofoam pellets.  It goes best with Silk Vanilla Coconut milk too, as opposed to the original version. 

Canning Applesauce!

So, I made my a batch of applesauce from some free apples and canned it!  This is the first time I have canned in my own kitchen, in my adult life.  My mom used to can things...  Yummy things made from elderberries and mulberries!!  I don't recall her ever making applesauce.  

It was very easy. 

Applesauce
Lots of apples to fill your crockpot (cut and cored...not peeled)
A bit of water
Bake in crockpot until soft/mushy.
Can!

For canning tips I used:

Simply Canning

My neighbor J came over at just the right time to help!  She had been wanting to learn as well, so we went through the steps together.  Mutually confirming that what we were doing was correct (her mom cans also, so she knows bits).